	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SAN JOSE

March 20, 2010

Willie Veasley

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

Butler Â– 54
Murray State - 52

ROGER ROSS: We welcome Butler. We have Coach Brad Stevens, Ronald Nored, Willie Veasley and Gordon Hayward. We'll open it up with a statement from the Coach Stevens.
COACH STEVENS: We got beat on the glass 39-22. They shot 9 for 14 from three, and we shot 36% from the field. I'm still trying to figure out how the heck we won, but these guys dug in and you're going to have to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we held 'em to a very low number of points after Matt went out with fouls, which puts us in a tough spot and our smaller lineup was incredible defensively.
ROGER ROSS: Questions for the student athletes, please.

Q. Gordon were you able to get a hand on that last possession, couldn't get a clear shot, as far as on the last possession there?
GORDON HAYWARD: I think I tipped it when he tried to pass it across court. We were just trying to not let them shoot a three, so did whatever I could to get the ball back and just dove on it so he couldn't do anything.

Q. Gordon, based on all those statistics that Coach read off, I guess what is your theory on how Butler did manage to win this game?
GORDON HAYWARD: Um, I think we just wanted it. I'm sure they wanted it really badly, too. But we all just kind of dug in like Coach said, and we want to keep playing with each other. We want to keep playing basketball, so just did whatever we could to get the job done.
I think we've done that a lot of times all year. We've just found ways to win when our shots haven't been fouling or people have got in foul trouble. So really proud of our guys for that.

Q. Ron or any of you, it looked like you had a pretty good situation when Butler was ahead by 8 points and then that disappeared very quickly and you trailed by 1. What was going through your minds at that time? What kind of talk was there in the time-outs and sideline speeches?
RONALD NORED: At that point, it was just to stay tough and to stay together. Murray State, they're a really good team and they make a lot of runs and that was one of their runs, you know, we just thought if we stayed together and keep fightin' through this that we would be good.

Q. Gordon, how would you describe your game up until that point, the deflection, I guess?
GORDON HAYWARD: I've been struggling with my shot especially lately, and I came out kinda flat. I don't know what that was. It's not like I didn't want it and it's not like I felt like I was playing hard. I guess I wasn't fully there mentally, so that probably describes how my game went, but I think my teammates picked me up for sure, words of motivation from everyone. So like I said we just found a way to win and happy for us.

Q. I'm sure you've been part of buzzer beaters before, but have you ever won a game like that so close to the buzzer with a defensive play? (Chuckles.)
GORDON HAYWARD: No, I don't think I have. I think that's a first for us.

Q. Willie, can you talk about the defensive effort on the perimeter especially after Matt went out with the fouls?
WILLIE VEASLEY: Well, when Matt went out, he's a big part of our defense especially. He anchors us in the middle and even when we get beat on the perimeter we know we have Matt back there so, when he went out we knew that we had to step it up just that much more on the perimeter and guard -- we got this thing called "guard or yard" and we knew it would be a big key coming into the game, but we had to focus more when Matt went out and focus on the perimeter and not let them get in there and get easy buckets.

Q. Ronald, could you talk about -- you guys were Cinderella a while back but now you're going for the third time in a short while. How did you want people around the country to view Butler?
RONALD NORED: Well, when we play I want them to see we play the game the right way, that they're tough, we stay together, we do everything together. You know, like Gordon says, he hadn't had as many shots as he normally does and he's going to, we're not worried about that, but we're all there for him.
That's a big thing about our team. No matter who is struggling, what anybody is going through we're all there for each other and I hope the way we play you can see that, and that's really what we want.

Q. Guys, you were wearing white jerseys tonight in the second round, so you were the favorite. How did it feel to be playing a team that was you guys several times during the Tournament, Murray State being the underdog you guys the favorite a little bit of a role reversal here?
GORDON HAYWARD: I guess you could say that. Obviously, they're a great team. They beat the No. 4 seed which would be seeded higher than us. So to me I don't know if seedings are really that big of a deal once you get on the court they don't really matter. I think you saw in this Tournament so far anything can happen, so everyone's playing to win. Murray State is a great team, and I think it was just two teams trying too win the game, I don't know about the seeding.

Q. Will, you talked about "guard the yard" could you expand what that means and what the coaches do to get you guys to buy into the defensive principles, because it's not something a lot of players like to do.
WILLIE VEASLEY: Guarding your yard, it's the area 2 feet on each side of you and it's basically like wallin' up your man and not allowing him to get past you within those 2 feet because that's your space, I say yours to take and then we got to help defend within that -- on the outside of that 2 feet.
So basically it's not allowing your man to get past you because then it's just you and him right then. But then we got the other four who are guardin' their man and they're guardin' your man. So it's not individual. It's us five versus that one man.

Q. The second part of my question?
COACH STEVENS: I don't know if he has to get us to buy into it. We know if we don't play defense we're not going to win. We're a smaller team than a lot of teams we're going to play especially from here on out, so defensively, it's a big focus, that's the majority of our practice and we know that to continue on and keep the season going that we have to play defense.

Q. Gordon, was there any talk coming out of the last time-out not to let Murray State do it again? Obviously, they played the Cinderella in the first round, not to let 'em hit a last-second shot?
GORDON HAYWARD: I think, obviously, we didn't want them to do that. I don't know if we talked about it. We talked about how we were going to defend them and we just didn't want them to get an open three because like you said they were capable shooters and had been there before. So we just didn't want them to get that open look.

Q. Willie, you're the only senior starter. You've won more games than any player in the program's history. What's going through your mind toward the end of the game because every senior in this Tournament if their team loses their college career is over.
WILLIE VEASLEY: Well, the main thing going through it, I was hoping that Matt made the free-throw and it would have made it easier. But just to get a stop, you know, we knew that they're very good on the perimeter, and we did. I mean I'm pretty sure it was in the back of everybody's mind what they did to Vanderbilt, so just to contain their guards and to get a stop and just to keep this thing goin'.

Q. And Butler was struggling from the three-point arc for much of the game, you hit two or three big ones in the second half. How how did you not let your confidence get shaken? At one point you were 1 for 7 from the field.
WILLIE VEASLEY: My teammates picked me up. My teammates and my coaches kept telling me to keep shooting, and I didn't let my confidence get down even though I was 1 for 7 like you said, just keep shooting, and that's what our whole team did.
ROGER ROSS: We would like to thank our student athletes for their time. We will open it up for Coach right now.

Q. Coach, were you surprised that they put the ball in the hands of a freshman at such a critical juncture?
COACH STEVENS: No, I'm very much -- I very much like all their guards, I think they're all outstanding. He's the one to me has made big shots. He's averaged 13 points a game over the last five. Prior to the Vanderbilt game he was their go-to in the OVC Tourney final against Morehead. He made huge shots, so no.
I thought our guys did a great job of doubling a little bit off of Aska. At that time we would not have attempted a 3, at the worst go in tied and play another 5 minutes which would not have been to our advantage because we had guys play a lot of minutes in the second half undersized. But they just found a way, it was a lot of fun, it was an unbelievable play at the end by Gordon, just diving on the floor and tipping that ball keeps the clock running, heck of a basketball play, smart.

Q. Can you talk about that last possession. Defensively you guys were aggressive, doubling the ball as you mentioned. Is that kind of part of what you try to do in defending last-second possessions?
COACH STEVENS: Not necessarilily. I think it was guys playin' personnel and using their minds, and it was pretty good. We wanted to sub Matt out on the free-throw and put Shawn Vanzant in. That was kinda the lineup that we had really defended with most of the second half. Between him and Zach Hahn they were rotating in and out.
Which, again, is undersized, but is good at defending the three-point line, and I didn't want to see a three-pointer taken.

Q. Brad, this team has played under a fair amount of pressure all season long, really not of their creation, you were the flavor of the summer, you had two players in the under 19 World Championships, so you were high in the preseason poles and it seemed like the expectations were extraordinary for this program. Could you elaborate on what it means to get this far and really whether a lot of things that Butler basketball really never had to cope with quite like this before?
COACH STEVENS: I think I learned a lot about myself. I need to get my priorities straight, because at Christmas when I was in Cleveland with my family I wasn't really a happy camper most of that time because we were at 8-4 and we were struggling here and there. These guys put together a 22-game win streak since and it's been unbelievable.
As far as managing those expectations, we probably didn't do a great job of it at the beginning of the year, but we got back to who we were, and I say that and you also got to realize we got beat by really good teams. We played with Matt in foul trouble quite a bit, and I think it made us stronger, it made us better.
You look back throughout the course of the season and you determine what has set you up to have success when adversity hits in certain areas, so Matt leaves the game, and in the Siena game we didn't have Willie or Matt for the better part of the second half. Willie was hurt and Matt was out. But our guys found a way and it was a different group and that gives you the confidence that you can do it again. Today was a good example of that.

Q. Coach, Gordon said he started slow but in the second half everything didn't work out, he would go to the basket, everything he did didn't turn out for him, but I thought he played really hard and really determined, is that what you saw?
COACH STEVENS: No question, no question. I mean, he was great. He's going to be hard on himself and you know, people might look at his stat line as far as missing shots goes, but how many times did he get his hands on balls?
Twice he caused mistakes at the end of a shot clock violation on defense, he dives on the loose ball at the end of the game, he's gettin' offensive rebounds, he keeps things alive and you have to account for him everywhere you go. He's a big-time player. I'm stating the obvious there, but he can play with anybody.

Q. Coach, every coach in college basketball stands up for his own league and that's customary, but could you elaborate on how horizon league play prepares you for this stage? You had the early season and then the horizon league season and you've always stated you thought you gone into Tournament play out of the Horizon League prepared for big things.
COACH STEVENS: You were at all of our games and how many did we win like that. We're one and done. We were down 7 at Milwaukee and came back and won. You're up 4 at halftime against Green Bay and you extend the lead, you're down at halftime in the Conference Tournament semifinal and you win.
You're building that and experience does become a factor however I think it's overrated because all of the experience in the world these guys get back and -- these are limited opportunities in your life to take advantage of and they're squeezed into a 40-minute game with another team tryin' their best to beat ya.
So it's a -- again, I'm proud of 'em, they've learned from a lot of experiences and applied those and hopefully we can continue to do that.
ROGER ROSS: Coach, thank you very much for your time.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297